A Copyfighter’s Musings

Harvard JOLT Copyright and Fair Use Symposium

When consumers are empowered, everyone wins

Consumers win with freedom and flexibility

Students get to have useful criticism and scholarship, research

Technology innovators have unquestioned ability to develop new products

Content creators win as consumers purchase more because it has higher value

Society wins

Founding Fatehrs made a balance, Congress and courts ahs pursued that balance through dilineating the fair use balance

Eldred opinion restates the importance of this fair use doctrine

Fair use keeps copyright in check

                Resonable compensation for use of works, but prevents full monopoly control

                Has benefitted copyright holders as well – movies and music draws on previous works

                                Notes public domain examples, Cinderella and Snow White (ed: doesn’t relaly give fair use examples)

Piano rolls, radio, VCR – all drew content companies’ ire because they threatened existing business models

Courts came up with substantial non-infringing use standard – which takes power out of copyright holders hands – you don’t need their permission to create something that interoperates

Remind ourselves how close we came to banning VCR

                Would have been devastating, and we need to keep that in mind today

DMCA

                Now we’re beginning to see the chilling effects – we seem to have lost sight of the value of the Betamax decision. Treating digital as different.

                Renders other parts of legal code completely irrelevant in digital world

Discusses DeCSS, Elcomsoft, Felten, garage door opener, Lexmark cases

Solutions

                Legislation: DMCRA

                                Empower consumers who haw lawful access make most convenient uses

                                Make media more valuable and thus more buying of digital media, which will even help broadband providers because people will be willing to buy more material online

                                Codify Betamax standard

                                Scientific research – DMCA exemptionsare “woefully inadaqueate” – shouldn’t have to consult with attorneys for everything

                                Labelling

DMCRA is supported by many different tech companies, public interest group, libraries, universities

We need a return to first principles and have a vigorous debate

Filed by Derek Slater at 3:26 pm under
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